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The Center is
a fully equipped, stand-alone biomedical research facility on the 7th
floor of the MultiStory Building in the West Complex
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| UVA West Complex (front entrance) |
of the
University of Virginia Medical Center on Jefferson Park Avenue in
Charlottesville. For 50 years this building served as
the University Hospital and was entirely renovated in the early 1990s.
The corridors and laboratories are beautifully designed and appointed,
with oak woodwork and furniture using blue as the accent color. Large
windows in the laboratories afford overlooking views of
the Medical Center and hills in the nearby countryside, including
Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson.
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| Along the central
public corridor are administrative offices, conference room, cold
room, and entrances to four of the faculty laboratory
suites. |
Spacious laboratory work bays are arrayed along
the exterior walls, which includes the front of the building
(photo above).
A walkway connects these laboratories; thereby
facilitating shared use of equipment, and promoting interaction between
laboratory groups. On the interior of the floorplan is a row of faculty
offices, desk areas and equipment and tissue culture rooms. A wide
public corridor provides access to the Center administrative offices,
conference room, cold room, and shared equipment and
instruments.
Other
laboratories on the rear side of the building have the same arrangement
of labs along the outside walls, providing plenty of natural
light to all the laboratories. The Center offers an outstanding working
environment.
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View in one of the research labs along the front
of building.
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The Center for
Cell Signaling is well equipped for research involving biochemistry,
molecular biology and cell biology. Incubators and sterile transfer
hoods in multiple locations allow for the culture of bacteria, yeast,
or insect and mammalian cells. A dishwashing and autoclave facility
supports these activities. Harvesting of cells and initial
fractionation employs a variety of superspeed and ultracentrifuges.
Protein and enzyme purification utilizes one of the multiple FPLC,
HPLC, and traditional chromatography systems in two walk-in coldrooms
plus reach-in cold cabinets. Gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting are
available in every lab, plus there is a system for high-speed microgel
analysis and for 2D-gel separation of proteins. Stained gels are
analyzed with a CCD camera imaging system, and those
containing radiolabeled molecules are analyzed with a
PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics). Assays can produce colored
products that are analyzed by a UV-visible spectrophotometer or
microtiter plates readers with selectable filters, or radiolabeled
products that are analyzed with liquid scintillation counters
(Beckman). There are three seperate microscope systems for imaging
cells, one upright for fixed specimens and two inverted for live
specimens. These all have high-speed digital cameras and OpenLab
software. These systems can be used to inject individual cells and
capture time-lapse movies of the effects. Most recently installed are
two Zeiss Confocal Laser Scanning microscopes, in particular the Model
510 meta, which allows rapid scanning and photobleaching to
monitor dynamic movements of proteins in living cells.
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Overall, the
Center has all the facilities and instrumentation to culture a variety
of cells and to produce and purify many different natural or
recombinant DNA, proteins and enzymes. These are in turn used as the
reagents to study the behavior of cells in response to changing levels
of particular components in signaling pathways.
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